The Justice Department gave House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., access to a redacted FBI memo that instigated the investigation of contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign — cooling the lawmaker's threat to impeach department of bureau officials, reports say.
A Justice Department official said the department had provided Nunes, ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and all committee members access to the document, with redactions "narrowly tailored to protect the name of a foreign country and the name of a foreign agent," The Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, the document is said to detail how the Russia investigation started, at least in part because a young Trump foreign policy adviser boasted to an Australian diplomat in May 2016 that Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.
That was months before hacked Democratic Party emails began appearing online, the Post noted.
Nunes had threatened Tuesday to take legal action – including contempt proceedings and impeachment – against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray for failing to produce a clean copy of the memo, known as an electronic communication or EC, that was responsive to an August 2017 committee subpoena.
"Although the subpoenas issued by this Committee in August 2017 remain in effect, I'd like to thank Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein for his cooperation [Wednesday]," Nunes responded, according to Fox News.
A Justice official told CNN that Nunes and Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., went to the Justice Department on Wednesday to view the document.
The Justice Department also made 1,000 pages of classified materials available to the full House Intelligence Committee, which the department believes "substantially satisfied" Nunes' August 2017 subpoena.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.